1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image communicating apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly to an image communicating apparatus equipped with an ink jet printer provided with plural ink discharge openings (orifices).
2. Related Background Art
There has recently been developed an ink jet printer for recording characters or an image by discharging ink from discharge openings to a recording material, utilizing bubbles generated by thermal energy. Because the heat generating member (heater) provided in each discharge opening is significantly smaller than the piezoelectric element employed in the conventional ink jet printers, this ink jet printer enables a high-density arrangement of multiple discharge openings, thereby providing a recorded image of high quality. In addition it has other advantages such as high speed and low noise.
On the other hand, a facsimile apparatus is required not only to transmit an image at a high speed, but also to receive the image with a high image quality and a high speed. In consideration of the above-mentioned features, the ink jet printer of the method discharging the ink toward the recording material utilizing the bubbles generated by thermal energy is considered as one of the printers capable of meeting such requirements, but there has not been provided a facsimile apparatus equipped with such an ink jet printer.
In such an ink jet printer, the ink discharge openings of the recording head may be clogged by the ink which is viscosified by a pause in the use of the recording head, or in a low humidity situation or by a difference in the frequency of use, or by the deposition of dust. For this reason there has been employed a discharge recovery mechanism for removing such viscosified ink by pressurizing the discharge openings from the interior of the recording head, or by sucking said ink from a protective cap for covering the discharge openings of the recording head. Also during a recording operation, the frequency of ink discharge is not uniform among the discharge openings, so that some openings may never be used and those used infrequently may cause clogging. Since such clogging deteriorates the image quality, the discharge recovery process is generally conducted at a regular interval, and for this purpose there is provided an interruption timer for interruption process.
However, in realizing a facsimile apparatus equipped with such an ink jet printer, if such discharge recovery process is conducted by a particular timer interruption as explained above, such interruption process increases the burden on the central processing unit and complicates the control program, and such complication is undesirable for a facsimile apparatus which must to achieve multiple functions with a simple and inexpensive structure.